Amsterdam Travel Guide

Amsterdam Canal Tour

Amsterdam's famous canal tours are an essential experience for visitors to the city, and continue to delight and amaze visitors from all over the world. Amsterdam's canals - newly inscribed in UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites - were essential to the city's transport and defensive strategies in the 17th century, but these days, their function is largely aesthetic, providing a picturesque method of seeing the historic city centre from its characteristic waterways. Tourists looking to take a canal tour of Amsterdam have two main options: the first is in one of the large glass-topped canal boats, which can accommodate hundreds of tourists and travel along predetermined routes. The second option, which is highly recommended, is to head to the St.Nicolaas Boat Club, a non-profit organisation that runs far more personal Amsterdam canal tours. The St. Nicolaas Boat Club makes use of the traditional boats (once used to transport vegetables and animals around Amsterdam), which can only